Monday, December 5, 2016

Nothing
pleases me more than having a full contingent of players for a tournament! We
maxed out with 24 registrations and not one single person cancelled during the
week. It appeared we were heading into a true Christmas miracle, uncharted
waters, smooth sailing… Of course, no tournament ever runs that way… The
5pm start time was strictly adhered to and since everyone turned up ‘on time’ we
only started 25 minutes late with 2 players missing. Luckily, Colin Bayer had
brilliantly foreseen this exact scenario and even though he didn’t enter the
event, was ready to play - gift and all. Michael Craig was also
aimlessly wandering the halls of the DAC and volunteered to step in for the
other M.I.A. member. Ah, yes… perfect planning!

Randomly
drawing matches adds a little to the excitement of the evening, and everybody
had a chance to play against somebody that they had never competed against
before. All of the matches were 3 games to 7, the shorter scoring system makes
all points more valuable and evens the playing field just a little too. Of
course, randomly drinking beers also adds to the excitement of the evening, or
to the fuzzy haze of it depending on how many trips to the keg one had made.

It’s
always a pleasure to see new faces at these events. Nathan Marsden was
one of them and he went home no doubt thinking that he could have won all 4 of
his matches rather than displaying a bagel in the win column. He lost each
encounter 1-2. At least they were all competitive! Nathan’s partner in crime - Jeff
Gembis - also had a bagel on his score sheet but it was in the loss column
instead. You would think a 4-0 record would secure a top 2 spot at the end of
the night, but such the nature of this event, Jeff only managed a 3rd place
finish. That was due to the fact that 3 of his wins were 2-1, those lost games
cost him. The 2nd place finisher actually had a 3-1 record…

The
‘Impressive Performer’ award I am going to give to Haytham Hermiz.
Haytham went 3 for 4, all three wins were 2-1 scores, including a couple of
opponents that I didn’t think he would beat. He was initially disappointed at
his only loss - an 0-3 pounding from Jeff Gembis - but once I explained
to him that Jeff plays in the #2 spot on the Boasters League, he didn’t feel so
bad after all! A close second for this award goes to Jeff Rogers. His
tactic of just popping the ball back, running down everyone else’s winners,
would even be a lot more effective if he actually discarded his soccer shoes
for squash ones. All of his matches were 2-1, he ended up winning three of
them, and the more I look at who he played, the more those results confuse me!
Talk about playing to the standard of your opponent!

JC Tibbitts and Sante

Every
player in the tournament won at least 1 game. Of the 48 matches played, 25 of
them were 2-1. I don’t know how many games ended up 7-6, but it was a decent
amount. In fact, the first result of the event was Brian Bartes beating David
de la Torre 2-1, all three of the games were 7-6! There is nothing more
exciting in squash than a sudden death rally. I think it should somehow be
reintroduced at the pro level.

The
final match of the evening would decide who could select from the gift table
first. Our good friend, and last year’s winner, Sante Fratarcangeli
versus our other good friend and no year’s winner JC Tibbitts. Both
players had won their first 3 matches 3-0. As the match started, my wife - as
always - times these things perfectly and decided she had to call me. I managed
to keep the conversation under the obligatory 30 minutes (love you, honey!) to
witness the 3rd game between the 2 players and see that Sante ended up taking
the match 2-1 and with it his second consecutive Holiday Tournament title!

He
chose his prize - a bottle of Vodka (I think…) and a jar of olives. Wouldn’t
have been my pick, I find olives repulsive. Amazingly, most of the gifts were
alcohol themed - who’d have thought? Patrick Petz once again managed to
select the strangest of all, sparking up haunting memories from 2005 when he
selected half-chewed muffins inspiring the start of the ‘banned substances’ list,
with what looked to be flower of some sort. I will have to find out exactly
what it was, maybe that list will have to be expanded!

A
wonderful evening was had by everyone, and the best gift of all was that the
keg miraculously didn’t go dry!